PACKET

 A piece of a message transmitted over a packet-switching network

LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN)

Connect many devices that are relatively close to each other, usually in the same building.

WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN)

Connect a small number of devices that can be many kilometers apart  

NODE

A node is anything that is connected to the network 

MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL (MAC) ADDRESS

This is the physical address to any device such as the NIC in a computer on the network.

IP ADDRESS

IP address is short for internet protocol (IP) address. It is an identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. 

BUS TOPOLOGIES

Each node is daisy-chained (Connect one right after the other) along the same backbone, like Christmas lights. Information sent from a node travels along the backbone until it reaches destination node.

RING TOPOLOGIES

Like a bus network, rings have the nodes daisy-chained. The difference is that the end of the network comes back around to the first node, creating a complete circuit. In a ring network, each node takes a turn sending and receiving information through the use of a token

NETWORK TOKEN

In programming languages, a single element of a programming languages. For example, a token could be a keyword, an operator, or a punctuation mark.  

STAR TOPOLOGY

In a star network, each node is connected to a central device called a hub. The hub takes a signal that come from any node and passes it along to all of the other nodes in the network.

TREE TOPOLOGY

A tree topology combines characteristics of linear bus and star topologies. It consists of group star-configured workstation connected to a linear bus backbones cable.

PROTOCOL

An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices. They determine the following: The type of error checking to be used, data compression method, if any, how the sending devices will indicate that it has finishing sending a message, how the receiving device will indicate that it has received a message.  

PEER-TO-PEER-ARCHITECTURE

Often referee to simply as peer-to-peer, or abbreviated P2P, a type of the network in which each workstation has equivalent capabilities and responsivities. This differs from client/server architectures, in which some computer are dedicated to serving others.        

Client Server Architecture

Client-server architecture (client/server) is a network architecture in which each computer or process on the network is either a client or a server.